There\u27s A Million Heroes in Each Corner of the U.S.A

[Verse 1] Virginia gave us Washington, way back in Sev’nty six Kentucky gave us Lincoln when our boys were in a fix Ohio gave us Grant and Dixie gave us Lee They fought it out and patched it up and made our history If you asked Uncle Sammy who could take their place today He’d rub his chin and with a grin he’d answer in this way. [Chorus] There’s a million heroes in each corner of the U.S.A. In cities and farms They’ve taken up arms The East and West have sent their best the rest are coming from the land of cotton You can bank on ev’ry loyal Yank to fight till the end of the fray When danger threatens they all rally ‘round That’s why the flag has never touched the ground There’s a million heroes in each corner of the U.S.A. [Verse 2] Columbus found America the home of peace and rest And Betsy Ross she found a flag to stand each battle test Tho’ heroes of the past have laid away the gun Their spirits live within the hearts of ev’ry native son Our flag is just as clean today as when it first was made each stripe and star a battle scar and still I’m not afraid. [Chorus

Effects of Environmental Zoning on Household Sorting: Empirical Evidence and Ecological Implications

In this paper we present a preliminary analysis of whether and how spatial variation in environmental attributes affects the residential sorting of households with heterogeneous preferences. An important implication of such sorting arises if variation in preferences over environmental attributes is correlated with household activities affecting the local ecosystem, such as the replacement of native vegetation with lawns, and the removal of course woody habitat from a lake. In this case the sorting process may engender differential evolution of local ecosystems (lakes) with the same initial ecological state. The model examined in the paper has the potential to statistically examine this issue, and therefore holds promise for understanding the behavioral implications of land use policies designed to protect local ecosystems. By facilitating the grouping of different types of households onto different lakes, for instance, lakeshore zoning policies may engender differentiation in the ecological evolution of lakes beyond what would be expected from the zoning policies themselves.Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use,

Heat shock protein 27 inhibition of the caspase cascade in human breast cancer cells

Cells may die via a programmed cell death called apoptosis. Apoptosis can be triggered by many death signals, some of which cause cytochrome c to be released from the mitochondria initiating the caspase cascade. When there is an over-expression of Heat Shock Protein 27 (HSP27), the cell does not obey the death signals that it receives. In this study, the molecular mechanism for the HSP 27 inhibition of the caspase cascade is described in human breast cancer cells that were engineered to constitutively express HSP 27. HSP 27 directly bound to cytochrome c and inhibited the activation of caspase 9 and caspase 3. In the presence of an excess amount of cytochrome c, the caspase cascade was reactivated. Granzyme B activated caspase 3 even in the presence of HSP 27. This suggests the conclusion that HSP 27 is a novel inhibitor of apoptosis by binding to cytochrome c

Protein Phosphatases: A Neglected Target Family for Drug Discovery

The gene family of protein phosphatases is a rich but under-exploited source of therapeutically validated drug targets modulating signal transduction pathways. Unlike the kinase family, research and development activities have not yet yielded any approved small-molecule drugs against a phosphatase. Approximately 20 years ago, the phosphatase family was classified as undruggable and intractable. This was primarily due to the spectacular failure of the cumulated industry-wide drug discovery efforts to develop PTP1B inhibitors. Recently, allosteric inhibitors against SHP2, a member of the phosphatase family, have entered clinical trails, which has reawakened industry’s interest towards this neglected enzyme family. This contribution reviews the recent R&D trends around small-molecule efforts towards phosphatase modulators over the last years, rather than providing an exhaustive review of the field of allosteric phosphatase inhibitors